Work on the Boram Airport extension in East Sepik Province will begin this year as the East Sepik Provincial Government (ESPG) Tenders Board has awarded the contract for creek diversion to enable runway extension work to proceed. This was announced by East Sepik Governor Allan Bird on his social media page. The Weraru Creek runs beside the Eastern end of the taxiway, hence the need for the diversion in order to extend it. Governor Bird said for the new terminal, it is now up to National Airport Corporation (NAC) to proceed with the tender in the next few months. The funding for the airport extension and terminal is funded by an Asian Development Bank (ADB) loan, which according to Bird, their loan conditions stipulates that they will not lend money to do work that is considered environmental damage. He said they have been requesting funding assistance from the National Government but have been unsuccessful. “ESPG wrote letters signed by me over the past 3 years to get money for this work, but these requests were denied by the National Government. ESPG is now paying for the creek relocation and the upgrade of the back road through to Perigo from saved funds. This is necessary so that our runway extension will commence after the building of the new terminal building,” said Governor Bird. He said the road going past the Wewak golf course and Boram Correctional Service (CS) facility will be permanently closed once the creek is diverted. “This is necessary due to the phasing out of the F100 and F70 by 2026, our runway will be too short to cater for B737 and A220 which PX is going to be using to service Wewak. I apologize for this delay in this work but unfortunately, the National Government refused to pay for the creek relocation all this time. "We also need the Boram Corrections Facility relocated. I hope the National Government will pay for that but just in case they won't, ESPG will have to bite the bullet and do it ourselves.” Bird thanked East Sepik Provincial Administrator Mr. Samson Torovi and the East Sepik Provincial Administration for their hard work behind the scenes to make this possible. “I also thank our national MPs who gave their approval for us to use some of our savings to proceed with this work. We apologize for not doing any groundbreaking ceremonies. Finally, I thank the people of Sepik for your patience during the delay period,” he concluded.